Murphy, Raleigh key to Mariners' early offensive fireworks 

PHOENIX -- Consistent production from his catchers is a valuable commodity for Mariners manager Scott Servais. Just take a look at the first inning of Friday’s 5-2 win over the D-backs at Chase Field as an example.

With the bases loaded and one out, Cal Raleigh smoked a double down the left-field line to give Seattle an early two-run lead. In the next at-bat, Tom Murphy, the backup catcher who started as the DH, hit a two-run double to make it 4-0.

That first-inning offensive outburst anchored by the two catchers resulted in the only runs the Mariners scored until the seventh inning. The catching duo hit a combined 4-for-9, with four RBIs. Heading into Friday, Mariners catchers have been worth 3.0 fWAR this season, the fourth most in the Majors.

The production behind the plate has prompted Servais to find ways to keep both of his catchers’ bats in the lineup. There will likely be more catcher/DH splits between Murphy and Raleigh going forward.

“It's a nice problem to have,” Servais said. “We just go back and forth defensively and keeping both of those bats going is really important for us.

“When you're swinging the bat well, [you put] the guys that are in there that are hot, and both these guys are swinging great right now.”

Murphy, particularly, has turned around his season and said he is close to achieving his full potential. In 2022, he had the best batting average of his career (.303) when his season ended abruptly on May 7 after he dislocated his left shoulder and underwent surgery.

Murphy was unable to find his way into the lineup at the beginning of the season, but has turned into one of the Mariners' best hitters as of late. He leads the team with 146 wRC+, albeit in only 120 at-bats. He has hit .345 since June 3 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in that span.

Murphy has spent a majority of his career as a backup catcher, but that never stopped him from having one of the best work ethics in the Mariners clubhouse.

“This guy takes more swings than anybody else on our team, and he's found some things that are working for him,” Servais said. “So hopefully it continues, he's put together a really nice offensive year after not getting a ton of playing time early.”

Murphy hasn’t revealed what has helped him improve at the plate, but he can pinpoint the moment he felt like things were going to change for the better.

“It felt like, after the first month of the season, I started working on some things that I thought would actually make me a better player,” Murphy said. “It's been a very long time since I felt like I am reaching my potential and this is pretty close.”

Murphy and Raleigh’s bats, and the overall offense the Mariners have produced this past week, will need to keep going if Seattle wants to stay in the hunt to play in October. After Friday’s results, they are 4 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot.

“We know we want to be buyers at the [Trade] Deadline,” Raleigh said. “We want to compete, we want to keep going on this thing. It's still far from over and we’ve played good baseball lately. We just got to keep it going.”

They’ll also need solid pitching performances like the one from Logan Gilbert. After having a rough outing against the Blue Jays in which he gave up five runs, Gilbert worked 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on nine hits and striking out five.

The 26-year-old has been working on solidifying his secondary pitches, one of them being his split-finger fastball, which was key in his strong outing.

“Logan does what Logan does, as I think he was as sharp as we've seen him in the past,” Servais said. “The split-finger pitch really played into the game tonight for him, and it's awesome getting that deep in the ballgame.”

“I probably didn't expect it to be this comfortable with it,” Gilbert said. “I felt like it helped out a ton and honestly, the slider was kind of so-so and the splitter really made up for it. So, I can go to that especially ahead in the count.”